Jan 9, 2024 at 7:35 PM
Despite the fairly extreme situation of a lot of rainfall last week and frost this week, you do not have to fear slippery roads. Rijkswaterstaat has spread a lot and remains alert, but says that the risk of slippery conditions has already decreased.
Cold in itself does not make it slippery. You need rain (puddles), hail or snow for that. Because no more precipitation is expected in the coming days, the chance of slippery conditions is small. Purely as a precaution, Rijkswaterstaat has spread a lot in recent days to prevent slippery conditions.
What about existing rain puddles? A spokesperson explains that the ground is still saturated, which means that water could remain on the road. When that water freezes, ice sheets form on the road. But these can be removed with special emergency machines. That also happened on Tuesday, the spokesperson said.
They are machines that, unlike regular gritters, can spread through thicker ice and snow layers with high pressure and high temperatures. With thick layers of ice, simply sprinkling salt over them makes less sense. Rijkswaterstaat will close the road for a short time to remove ice sheets.
However, even without precipitation, we cannot completely rule out the possibility that water will still appear on the road here and there in the coming days. “The ground is saturated by all the rainwater, which means that groundwater can easily enter the road.”
Tunnel troughs, such as the Heinenoord tunnel under the Oude Maas near Rotterdam, can also experience leakage water. In these tunnels, water is drained through gullies, but during heavy rainfall they sometimes become clogged with leaves and dirt. Then water can remain on the road.
No frost damage on roads reported yet
Partly because of this, Rijkswaterstaat is well prepared for these temperatures. “We constantly monitor whether there is still enough salt on the road, what the temperature of the road surface is and are in contact with the KNMI about the weather forecast,” says the spokesperson. “If it gets slippery somewhere, we will intervene in time.”
There is currently no frost damage to the highway, the spokesperson says. Frost damage occurs because water freezes and expands between the asphalt, causing cracks in the road surface.
“The asphalt is regularly checked, but no reports have been received yet.” If frost damage does occur, Rijkswaterstaat will repair it as quickly as possible.
2024-01-09 18:35:28
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